Clinton: 'Act of terror' in Nigeria

Hillary Clinton called the capture of nearly 300 Nigerian school girls by extremists an “act of terrorism” Wednesday and said the government there needed to accept global offers of help, including from the United States.

It was the first time Clinton has spoken out at length about the capture of the girls, who were seized from a Nigerian school in mid-April. Initially, more than 300 were kidnapped, but some escaped. At least 276 are reported to still be held captive by the Islamist militia Boko Haram, which has threatened to sell them.

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Clinton has made the participation of women and girls in society a signature issue at her family’s foundation, but, aside from a tweet on Monday, she had not discussed the kidnapped girls publicly until Wednesday. Her comments came after President Barack Obama addressed the matter Tuesday, meaning the potential 2016 presidential candidate couldn’t be accused of undermining him.

Asked whether Clinton had intervened with Obama to urge action before his announcement on Nigeria, her spokesman, Nick Merrill, replied in an email, “We respect her private communications with the [White House], so we defer to them.” A White House official, asked the same question, replied that the administration’s response has “been driven by events, not by any external advice.”

“The seizure of these young women … is abominable, it’s criminal, it’s an act of terrorism, and it really merits the fullest response possible first and foremost from the government of Nigeria,” the former secretary of state told journalist Robin Roberts at a Ford Foundation event in New York City.

The “government of Nigeria has been somewhat derelict” in dealing with these types of issues, she said, echoing frustrations voiced by the parents of the girls. They “need to make it a priority to do everything they can to try to bring these girls home safely.”

Clinton noted that Obama had offered U.S. military help in tracking down the girls, and that Secretary of State John Kerry, her successor, had “conveyed it directly” to Nigerian officials.

The Nigerian government has struggled for years to defeat Boko Haram, a particularly violent network whose name translates roughly to “Western education is forbidden.” The group’s harsh interpretation of Islam frowns upon education for girls in particular.

In recent days, outrage over the kidnappings has spread rapidly around the world, thanks in part to a social media campaign that uses the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls. Clinton’s tweet on Monday used that hashtag, as have tweets from first lady Michelle Obama and others. Aside from the U.S., other countries such as France and China, have offered to help the Nigerian government search for the girls.

“It’s horrible, Robin, it’s horrible,” Clinton said Wednesday. “It is a terrible example of what we’re seeing unfortunately more of — the use of women and girls particularly as victims of war, as slaves for these militia groups … and a failure of local law enforcement, local community support and then the entire national government.

Later, at an event hosted by Crisis Group at the Waldorf-Astoria, where Clinton was honored, she said the girls had been taken at “gunpoint by depraved thugs and held in unimaginable conditions. I think about their mothers and their fathers, sick with fear.”

She called for “a lot more action” in the “urgent and moral imperative” of rescuing the girls.

“I greatly appreciated President Obama’s decision to send a team to assist the Nigerians. … Everyone needs to see this for what it is. It is a gross human rights abuse, but it is also part of a continuing structure within Nigeria and within North Africa.”

Clinton also was asked Wednesday if she’d consider tapping either Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) or San Antonio Mayor Julián Castro as her running mate if she were to run for president. She replied that she never answers hypotheticals, but praised the question from the audience as being “one of the cleverest” ways she’s been asked about 2016.

“I can only say that they’re both extraordinary leaders and great political advocates for a lot of what needs to be done in our country, and I admire both of them greatly,” Clinton said about Warren and Castro.

Clinton also elaborated in some detail on the frame of her upcoming book, due out June 10, saying that it begins at the end of her 2008 presidential primary race against Obama and explores her decision to leave the U.S. Senate and join his Cabinet.

She talked about “what we found when we got” to Foggy Bottom, and what she inherited from the previous administration. She also repeatedly referenced the book’s title, “Hard Choices,” as she talked about ones she’d made while in office.

The former first lady also discussed another title she’s soon to take on: grandmother, saying she had no preference for whether her daughter, Chelsea, has a boy or a girl.

“I want a healthy, happy child and I have a lot of confidence in my daughter and [her] husband to be the kind of parents” who can help a child flourish, she said. “And I want to do as much as I can — whatever position I’m in — to try to keep raising awareness and finding solutions to the problems that stand in the way of a child being able to develop to the fullest of his or her potential.”

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misidentified Castro’s city.